Top 10 Celebrity Death Hoaxes

From Charlie Chaplin to the latest Jackie Chan – celebrity death rumors have been the object of mass/much sensation. In the earlier days, it used to be word-of-mouth and now it is Twitter trends – but the fake rumors do not seem to end anytime soon. Here, we take a look at the top 10 celebrity death hoaxes.

Charlie Chaplin - With the spate of fake deaths in the last couple of years, it would seem that this phenomenon came on with the birth of social networking sites. It is not so, as it was around as early as the 40s. Comedian Charlie Chaplin’s death hoax was one of the first ones. It came on the heel of US President Franklin Roosevelt’s death in 1945, along with many others.

Frank Sinatra - The world as they knew it back in the 40s was changing – what with the death of the president and the start of the Second World War. Hysteria ruled and well, fake-killed a lot of celebrities back then as well. Another victim was Ol’ Blue Eyes – Frank Sinatra. He lived to be 82 when he did finally die much later in 1998.

Paul McCartney - Possibly one of the most famous victims of a death hoax, the ‘Paul McCartney is dead’ rumor lasted for almost two years! Everything started when McCartney had a car accident in 1967 – he survived the crash, but the rumor of his demise continued till 1969. University newsletters carried news of his death and (believe it or not) a lookalike replacement taking over his life!

Nelson Mandela - Cut to the Twitter age and you can kill off any famous celebrity at the press of a couple of buttons. South African leader Nelson Mandela became a victim this month even as he was struggling with his lung infection in the hospital. The one fake tweet was retweeted more than 1300 times – spreading online paranoia.

Jim Carrey - In 2011, Jim Carrey was rumored to be dead in a snowboarding accident. His death and many others’ – like Adam Sandler and Charlie Sheen – has roots in a website called Fake a Wish which leaks out death rumors and unassuming internet users take the bait. Surprisingly, if you go to Facebook and type ‘R.I.P. Jim Carrey’, you will still find pages and communities dedicated to this!

Johnny Depp - One of the sexiest actors alive, Johnny Depp has also such active memorial pages on Facebook still. If rumors were true, he would probably be dead a couple of times over. From drowning on the sets of ‘The Lone Ranger’ to dying in a car crash in France – this man has survived all hoaxes and is still standing tall at 50.

Rihanna - Rihanna supposedly died in an alcohol induced heart attack at her home recently – fake accounts made in the name of reliable news sources tweeted. This caught on fire online and given that Twitter handles looked very similar to the original sources, people didn’t question it much. The ‘Diamonds’ singer is just fine.

Eminem - This rapper was killed off in a supposed car crash by news reports way back in 2000. And again in May this year, a fake picture of him stabbed to death began to circulate on Facebook. Clicking on it led to the most dubious of spasm – as online hoaxes usually do.

Justin Bieber - It won’t be exaggerating to say that a lot of people would not have been too sad if this were true. But unfortunately, it was not – it was a hoax that had his 22 million followers on Twitter in a frenzy. The tweet that started it all said he had died in a car crash. It is interesting how so many celebs seemingly are killed off in car accidents.

Jackie Chan - The latest celebrity who became a victim of death hoax is the lovable actor Jackie Chan. In his trademark self-effacing humor, Chan laid to rest all rumors by posting a picture of himself with the date of the latest newspaper next to him. To think he had died of a heart attack – at 59, he is very much hale and hearty.

For gullible folks, it might be handy to do a second check on the supposed shocking news of famous deaths before retweeting or posting statuses immediately. You know, it helps to not look like a food – even if it is online.